COME HOME
As he finished putting on his jacket the Doctor's feet landed on sodden dewy grass. In front of him he saw a lush green field rising up to a knoll with a few odd trees acting as a windbreak.
"Willow and green ash; lovely." He regarded the tree line before him as he walked up the slope. "Not traditionally what one might find on the Alpha Centauran home world, however." He remarked to himself. "Earth is far more likely ..." He turned around and regarded the full view. A group of curious cows stared with doleful eyes at him from just a couple of metres down the way from the TARDIS. Backing them was their picturesque home all of rolling green fields, blue sky and fluffy white clouds. Over in the distance he spotted a single farmhouse with white walls and a red roof half hidden by an overgrown cottage garden and to the left of that there was a barn followed by another line of trees. He studied the horizon and saw way off in the distance a church steeple standing out amongst a thick stretch of greenery. There was a vague familiarity about this area although the Doctor couldn't pick it from this angle.
"Judging by the local flora I'd say ..." He paused, realising he was speaking aloud to himself yet again. With a woeful sigh the Doctor shrugged and started walking towards the cows near the TARDIS.
"Hello there, I'm the Doctor," he told the cows, "do you mind me parking my ship here for a bit?"
The closest cow stared at him and waggled her ears. The others only looked up at him for a moment before continuing their grazing.
"My ship, that blue box," he pointed, "it's my space ship. You know what a spaceship is, right?"
The cow nodded and with a swallow she slowly lowered her head down to the grass in a display of total disinterest in him.
"Right, well." He sniffed in defeat and looked away, "I take it you don't mind if I leave it here for a bit then." Gathering his courage back up the Doctor made towards the township on the horizon.
'Oi, bipedal?'
He spun around with a smile as a black and white Friesian calf looked at him and doffed his head to the left. 'The lane's over that way.'
"Oh, thank you very much!" The Doctor replied and, with his hands in his pockets he veered left.
As he continued on along the narrow tarmac road, breathing in the fresh country air, the sense of familiarity about the area grew. It was something about the atmosphere and the geographical layout that came clearer to him as he closed in on the village. Or it could have been the birdsong.
The birds ranged from unmistakable rooks up in the higher land and as the road meandered down to a low water crossing he could hear the deep resonance of bitterns and the piping of avocets. A gaggle of Canadian geese crossed the road in front of him and a very large extended family of starlings was enjoying the bright sunny day with great relish.
A sign in the distance up ahead came into view. 'Welcome to Farringham Village. Population six hundred and six.' The Doctor read.
Eventually the road wound its way into the updated village. The buildings along the main street were all built after the First World War. Instinctively the Doctor knew that the discarded future would've seen it a few thousand people stronger and more older buildings intact.
Regardless of his guilt over the past Farringham was now a beautiful and cosy little village. There were window boxes brimming with colourful flowers and the number of parked bicycles was nearly equal to that of cars. A woman walking into the newsagency and a man up the road tending a garden were the only people he could see out and about.
There was a parked station wagon, a hatchback, and a Ute with a dog sitting in the tray.
The dog was watching him with a wagging tail and curious ears. 'Hallo, I'm Ralph! I'd love a petting.'
He came up to the side of the Ute and scratched the dog behind the ears. ''What a great name, Ralph. I'm the Doctor. Tell me; do you possibly know what the date is?"
'Well, let's see. It's still summer.' The dog snuffled. 'We've done the drenching.' The dog yawned comfortably.
"I ... don't know much about farming." The Doctor said regretfully. "Waell, not on Earth, anyway."
'Oh, not a bother, Doctor. Try the paper shop over there; that's where my human seems to get all sorts of human information from. Oh, and I can recommend the food shop.' The dog nodded at the chairs and tables one door up from the post office. 'Mrs. Latimer's carrot cake is simply delicious. If you can sneak off with a bit for me that'd be such a treat.'
The Doctor regarded the sandwich board offering a tea and cake deal. "Thank you very much. I'll see if I can manage something for you before your human gets back." He smiled at the dog.
'Watch out!' The dog barked in alarm. There was a scrabble of four wheels on the uneven paving heading directly towards him and the Doctor spun around to catch the skateboarder from bumping into him.
"Whoa, there we are." He smiled as he managed to keep them both upright.
"Sorry. Still learning." The teenager mumbled without catching his eye, focusing instead on grabbing up his skateboard from off the ground. The young adult dashed off up the street in a fit of nerves.
The Doctor walked over to the cafe on the other side of the road.
Inside it was part cafe and part general food store. There were freezers sporting trays of sausages and cupboards lined the walls filled with food like cans of mushrooms in gravy sauce and packets of Jammie Dodgers. He collected a newspaper from the rack beside the counter and asked for a cup of tea and piece of carrot cake.
After dropping half the contents of his change pocket onto the counter he sat down at a spare table by the open window. The other patrons were two elderly women; one thin and the other portly.
'1 July 2012. Farringham village.' He slowly scanned the paper as he enjoyed his tea. Most of the news was about farming, trade prices, racing results and promotions for upcoming events in the nearby towns.
"... The place was a complete mess last night, Cin. Darn near scared me half to death to think they might still have been around when I got in."
"Oh, gosh! Was anything stolen?"
"That's the funny thing about it. At first glance it didn't look like anything was actually taken. It was just terribly disorganised. Sam said to go through everything as I was tidying up because it quite looked to him like they were looking for something very specific. I'm very glad I took his advice because I discovered that they did take something and now I don't feel so worried about the whole thing."
"Someone broke into your house and you don't feel worried because they stole something? You could have had a heart attack. What was it?"
"Don't you fret, dear, my heart is fine. They took one of Granddad's trinkets. If you look at it practically, Hyacinth, they've got what they were after so they'll hardly be wanting to come back again, will they?"
"That's certainly true, Martha, but-."
"I didn't notice it was missing straight away because I normally leave it in the box with the rest of Granddad's things. I'm hardly in the practice of needing to look at it every day. In fact I'd have thought it was my own carelessness to have lost it if they hadn't been quite so obvious about rifling through everything. They even pulled the cushions off the chairs for goodness sake!"
"Gracious, Martha, have you talked to Sam again and told him?"
"Not yet."
"Oh, but you really must."
"It hardly matters since I know he can't do much about it." Martha said in a rather dark turn of her voice.
The Doctor glanced over to the two elderly women sitting there. A niggling feeling crept up on the Doctor; it wasn't his department to chase down common burglars but he couldn't avoid listening to their conversation since the whole place was otherwise completely silent. He gazed around at all the goodies for sale along the shelves as he drank his tea. There were jelly crystals and spaghetti, dolly mixtures and more biscuits, coconut cream and sliced beetroot. They all fit in to the tiny space because there was only one or two of each item.
"Come now ..." Hyacinth hesitated, "worth a lot, wasn't it?"
"Oh, I've never been terribly interested in how much some old thing fetches." The woman Martha sighed.
"And it's not enough to fuss about. It's just a bit of a shame to lose that bit of history. And it was a darn nuisance having to clean everything up after them! Those land pirates." Martha scoffed with disdain. "I wonder why they couldn't just ask if they could have the blessed thing instead of barging in while I'm out in the back paddock. There's no common decency in people's heads these days, that's what it is. It all goes out the window once someone wants something."
"Still, look on the bright side." Hyacinth offered. "It might turn up in a pawnbroker shop and then the local authorities will have a field day."
"No, I'm certain it's quite gone." Martha disagreed rather matter-of-factly. "I shan't be seeing it again."
"Surely you don't mean-."
"It wasn't exactly Cartier, Cin. The candlestick I have in the hall is probably worth more. And Sally's new laptop was sitting out on the coffee table as plain as day. No, I'm just lucky they found what they wanted and left without causing any real damage."
"... What, you mean like breaking into your wine cellar?"
The two women laughed consolingly together.
Wrapping up the remaining half of the carrot cake the Doctor decided by now the TARDIS' circuits would have cooled off enough and he could have another try at getting to Alpha Centauri. He left the cafe/general store and crossed the road where he then discreetly handed the cake to an ecstatic Ralph.
After saying goodbye to Ralph the Doctor headed out of town and back to his TARDIS. A large white van was coming towards him down the lane and he waited for them to pass before he carried on. A marsh harrier flew on overhead.
Village shops really were quite different to compare to city shops, the Doctor mused. In the city a store that had 'everything' people wanted in it had to have over a dozen square metres of floor space. With the post office next door - or as Ralph considered it the 'paper shop' and the dressmakers and hardware shops across the road it was perfectly clear that the people of Farringham had little want for anything.
The Doctor turned off the country lane and got over the fence. As he progressed across the paddock he'd left only a couple hours earlier he realised his TARDIS was absent from the scenery.
He stared at the empty patch of grass in shock. "What on Earth would anyone want with a big blue wooden police box?" He felt a flurry of panic as he realised that he'd just been rendered homeless.